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editinge71107041
Participating Frequently
January 11, 2019
Question

Align shape layers on a circle path

  • January 11, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 4638 views

Hi everybody,

I am trying to make something as simple as to recreate the EU flag. Here a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe#/media/File:Flag_of_Europe.svg

We have stars aligned in a circle, all oriented in the same direction (towards down) and I want to be able to animate them on this circle.

This proved to be a real issue (I don't want to make it manually, since I want a smooth movement and the ability to make easily changes). It doesn't work as would work with text... I had found some AE scripts online, but there must be another easy way to do it.

Does anyone have any idea, at least for the part of aligning the shape layers? The animation I might figure it out if I just manage the first step...

Thanks a lot.

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2 replies

OussK
Community Expert
OussKCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 11, 2019

You can do this using star shape and repeater effect, here's the thing you ask for Dropbox - Stars.aep

if you need to do changes you can play with this 2 main parameter, also by adding few key frames you can animate the stars as you want

    E
    editinge71107041Author
    Participating Frequently
    January 16, 2019

    Thanks Everybody for your replies.

    Dear Oussk, I had tried the "repeater", but it does not give me the possibility to orient all stars towards down, only towards the circle centre. This is a very important detail! More than that, if I want for my path to be a bit changed (like not a perfect circle), i can't really control that easily.

    The repeater was my first choice, but it didn't work.

    What I did in the end, was to download a star-font, and simply animate the font on the path. I do have individual control over each star and overall a much easier control over their common movement, path, etc. Nonetheless, there must be an easier way to do the same with a group of shape layers!

    Dave_LaRonde
    Dave_LaRonde
    Inspiring
    January 16, 2019

    There are often a couple of ways to skin a cat in AE.  You could do it using a null and duplicated shape layers: 

    • Put the null at the very center of the comp. 
    • Figure out the degrees of rotation necessary to equally space the shapes on the circle. 
    • Put the first shape the proper vertical distance from the null.  Parent it to the null.  Rotate the null the proper amount.  Un-parent and rotate the shape to the proper orientation.
    • Repeat this process of duplicating shapes, parenting, rotating the null, un-parenting and re-orienting until you're done.
      imeilfx
      imeilfx
      Inspiring
      January 11, 2019

      Several days ago someone was asking similar thing so look here: Animate multiple objects along path  Hope that it help - if not let us know.

        E
        editinge71107041Author
        Participating Frequently
        January 16, 2019

        Thanks for the link. I will try it out, though I am wondering if there is a simpler way, without the need to write expressions (what I really can't do, so I won't be able to adapt any expression to my needs). After all it's just stars in a circle.

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